This study exemines the roles of corporate social activity (CSR) and executive compensation structure on the pricing of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) with special focus on the role of CSR in reducing the level of information asymmetry between managers and future shareholders of issuing firms through SEOs. This study also investigates the interaction between executive compensation structure and CSR on the discounting of SEOs. We use a sample of 2,102 seasoned equity offerings of U.S. firms with CSR scores from 1995 to 2015 in our OLS fixed effect regression analysis. The results show that issuing firms with high CSR are more likely to expericence a lower degree of the SEO discount. The results also document a positive association between CSR and a high proportion of equity-based compensation of issuing firms’ executives. The findings of this paper confirm that CSR attenuates the impact of information asymmetry and the pre-SEO price uncertainty on the pricing of the offers and hence the SEO discount. Furthermore, CSR reinforces the impact of executive firmrelated wealth on the discounting of seasoned equity offerings. It appears that firm-related wealth motivates managers to actively engage in reducing information asymmetry activities before SEOs, thereby decreasing the SEO discount.

The study examines the impact of corporate governance mechanisms, such as board characteristics on corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD). The data on CSRD items and board characteristics have been collected by content analysis of the annual reports of 30 publicly-listed banks in Bangladesh covering six years, from 2013 to 2018. More specifically, the directors’ report, the chairman’s statement, notes to the financial statement and CSR disclosure reports included in annual reports were used to collect the CSRD data. The empirical analysis applies the ordinary least square and the generalized method of moments. The results of the study have revealed that board size, board independence, female board member, and foreign directors have a significant positive impact on CSRD. By contrast, political directors and audit committee size have a negative impact on CSRD. Interestingly, accounting experts on boards ensure more CSRD as they curb the influence of politicians on the board. Thus, it is better to increase accounting experts and decrease politicians on the board. These findings provide valuable insights into the process of forming a suitable CSR policy by connecting the efforts of the board, government, and regulatory bodies to enhance the performance of banks to CSR as well as to CSRD.

This study investigates the nexus between the level of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures (CSRD) and Risk of Bankruptcy of companies that are listing in the Stock Exchanges of Vietnam. To investigate that relationship, this study collected secondary data from annual audited financial statements from 2014 to 2018 of listing companies. Applying two different regression models with two dependent variables and six independent and control variables, we find out that Vietnamese firms with higher level of CSRD performance can rapidly reduce their risk of bankruptcy. This phenomenon happens in the current year and in the coming years in all firms in the research sample. This result may be that the disclosures of social responsibility information can bring financial and non-financial benefits to the firms. In addition, the results also point out that there is a difference in risk of bankruptcy between the group of companies, which discloses and the one which does not disclose corporate social responsibility on their annual reports. This might be from the effects of various factors such as business size, financial leverage, market to book ratio, return on assets, cash flow from operations, etc. Our research results can be applied to other firms in Vietnam and in other similar jurisdictions.

Purpose: Most of all studies regarding corporate social responsibility have been dealing with its direct performance. Many previous studies provided the evidence that corporate social responsibility activities directly affect firms‘ competitiveness or corporate reputation. However, there are no studies regarding the role of social capital between corporate social responsibility and firms‘ competitiveness. The present study aims to examine a mediating role of social capital between corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation. Research design, data and methodology: The structural equation model integrating corporate social responsibility, social capital, and corporate reputation was proposed with three hypotheses. Questionnaire including 15 question items for three concepts was designed. Data for testing hypotheses were collected from students and staff who had experienced the social responsibility activities of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Co. Ltd. SPSS and SmartPLS were used to analyze data. Results: All three hypotheses were supported at the significance level of 0.01. Corporate social responsibility have a significant influence on social capital as well as corporate reputation. Social capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation. Conclusions: The present paper identified a missing link between corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation by validating an indirect effect of corporate social responsibility on corporate reputation through social capital. The present study contributes to finding the indirect link between corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation. Implications for academics and practitioners. The research model can be extended to analyze the relationship between corporate social responsibility and its performance. The present study sheds light on identification of a new role of social capital. Managers of firms have the opportunity to recognize the fact that investment recovery of corporate social responsibility results from social capital and corporate reputation in long-term rather than short-term. The results of this study offers an insight that managers can enhance customer loyalty. The process linking corporate social responsibility to corporate reputation through social capital implies that firms can realize spiritual marketing delivering authentic storytelling through corporate social responsibility. The present study has a limitation for generalizing of research results because the sampling came from a case of firm.

The research aims to explore the links among corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, and earnings management, considering vital roles of each component in Vietnam. There were 500 questionnaires provided to the targeted enterprises, where there were 150 enterprises in Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, 150 enterprises in Hanoi Stock Exchange, and 200 enterprises in the unlisted public company market. Of the distributed questionnaires, only 289 replies offered needed information for analyses. The data derived from these firms was based on their annual or sustainability statements that were retrieved from the websites. This research used a sixyear rolling window to calculate earnings management. To compute that variable, lagged year information was included, so the data from 2011 to 2017 was needed to collect. The empirical results show that corporate governance mechanism is a significant moderation in the positive link between good corporate social responsibility and earnings management. Furthermore, corporate social responsibility and earnings management also play mediating roles in the associations among corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, and earnings management. This project recommends that corporate governance mechanism is an essential driver of the managerial behaviors in social responsibility and ethical accounting practices, which are in turn mediators in the joint research model.

The study aims to provide some evidence of the effects of CSR practices on financial-based brand equity in Malaysia. Nowadays, many companies have embraced corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices because CSR is a vital component of the current competitive and complex business arena. It contributes greatly to social, environmental, and economic condition. With CSR practices, companies are able to achieve many benefits and there is evidence that CSR practices predict higher brand equity. However, little evidence has been produced concerning the effects of CSR practices on financial aspects of brand equity in developing countries such as Malaysia. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the effects of CSR practices on financial based brand equity among Malaysia Top 100 brand. A CSR checklist instrument was used in the current study to examine the extent of CSR practiced. The results indicated that PLCs that were actively involved in CSR practices such as environmental, community, workplace and marketplace, found that this involvement enhanced their brand equity. The findings provide useful support and evidence for the management of PLCs in Malaysia, as well as companies in other developing countries, to engage more in CSR practices as a core element of their strategic and brand management.

Corporate social responsibility is a self-regulating business model that helps a firm be socially accountable to the public. By practicing corporate social responsibility, firms can be conscious of the kind of impact they are having on all aspects of society, including economic, social, and environmental. Corporate social responsibility activities are not directly linked to increasing corporate performance and corporate value, but rather involve spending expenses. Based on these facts, this study verifies whether the effects of corporate social responsibility activities differ depending on the firm's situation. Research design, data and methodology: This study analyzed the effect of market competition on corporate social responsibility activities using logistic regression analysis on listed companies in the KOSPI and KOSDAQ for fiscal years 2014 through 2016. In this study, market competition was measured using the Herfindahl-Herschman Index(HHI). Higher HHI value can be interpreted as a lower degree of market competition. We also measured corporate social responsibility activities using the KEJI Index published by the Korea Economic Justice Institute (KEJI). If a firm-year is included in the top 200 companies of the KEJI Index, it is classified as a good corporate social responsibility activity firm. Results: We find that companies in less competitive market were not included in the KEJI Index. This result indicates that firms in the market with lower market competition perform less corporate social responsibility activities that incur costs. An additional analysis showed that there was a significant negative relationship between the market competition and the corporate social responsibility activity scores published by the KEJI Index. These result adds robustness to the result of the hypothesis that firms that have a monopolistic place in the market practice passive corporate social responsibility activities. Conclusions: The results show that managers of a firm in the lower market competition have a lower incentive to use limited resources for projects that are not directly related to revenue. The results of this study imply that corporate social responsibility activities vary according to the position of the business. Therefore, this study suggests that market investors should consider the degree of competition in the market when they evaluate corporate social responsibility activities.

Purpose – In this study, previous CSR researches was reviewed to help understand the CSR effects, and offer suggestions for future research directions. Research design, data, and methodology – To achieve the purpose of this study, previous CSR effects related researches were reviewed based on stakeholder perspectives. Results - After reviewing, some limitations were found. First, most of the CSR related studies in the management area have focused on CSR effects on individual stakeholders such as the shareholder, the employee, and the consumer. Second, it was difficult to find studies on the management aspect of CSR from both an effective and efficient perspective. Conclusions - To overcome these limitations of previous studies, several studies need to be conducted in the future. First, CSR research must be expanded into B-to-B businesses. Few studies try to figure out the effect of CSR on B-to-B businesses but only suggest the effect of CSR on B-to-B business conceptually. Therefore, empirical study needs to be conducted about CSR to show business performance in the B-to-B market. Second, the process of CSR must be developed on how to improve CSRs’ effectiveness and efficiency. Finally, a relationship between a company and individual stakeholders needs to be revised using stakeholders’ multiple identities.

This paper examines how corporate social responsibility is related to the degree of asymmetric information in the Korean financial market. Recent theory argues that there is a negative relationship between a firm’s corporate social responsibility and its information asymmetry. To test this hypothesis, we use the environment, social and governance (ESG) score, published by the Korean Corporate Governance Service, to proxy a firm’s management practices toward socially responsible activities. In the entire sample of the Korean firms, we find contrasting results; the ESG score shows negative relationships with the price impact measure but statistically insignificant relationships with the dispersion of analyst forecasts. However, the ESG score shows negative relationships with both measures when we exclude chaebol affiliates from the sample. These findings are robust when we examine environmental, social and corporate governance scores separately. This set of results argues for the extant theory, expecting a negative relationship between a firm’s engagement in corporate social responsibility and asymmetric information. It further argues for the importance of firm characteristics in determining the influence of socially responsible activities.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) and investment-cash flow sensitivity, which is a surrogate for financing constraints. Research design, data, and methodology – Taking China’s A-share listed companies between 2009 and 2016 as a sample, this paper empirically tests the relationship between CSRD and investment-cash flow sensitivity by Panel VAR model. By introducing the orthogonal impulse response function, this paper distinguishes the fundamental factors and financial ones that affect corporate investment behavior. Results – Findings indicate that: (1) investment-cash flow sensitivity of firms with low level of CSRD is significantly lower than that of firms with high level of CSRD; (2) the orthogonal impulse response of corporate investment to cash flow in firms with high level of CSRD is significantly different from zero, but it is not significant in firms with low level of CSRD; (3) for firms with low level of CSRD, 0.7% of corporate investment volatility can be explained by the change in cash flow, which is lower than that of firms with high level of CSRD (1.1%). Conclusions - Corporations disclosing more and higher quality CSRD are often those faced with financing constraints. Voluntary disclosure can help them alleviate information asymmetry and financing constraints.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of the strategies for managing firms’ business activities but may have heterogeneity depending on ownership structures. This study investigates the association between group-affiliation and CSR activities. Drawing on a theory from the prior research, this study predicts that group-affiliated firms are less likely to invest on CSR activities. For instance, prior research finds that controlling shareholders expropriate the values of minority shareholders. As one of the motivations of investing on CSR activities is the harmonization among the stakeholders, it leads to the prediction that firms controlled by large shareholders are less likely to engage in CSR activities. Second, group-affiliated firms under poor financial performance benefit from other group members through sharing their financial resources. Thus, there is less incentive for managers of group-affiliated firms to increase their financial performance by conducting CSR. By leveraging firms listed in Korean stock market and CSR score from Korea Economic Justice Institute, the result shows that the groupaffiliation is negatively related to CSR activities. The result is consistent in case of applying propensity score-matched sample. Based on the findings of this study, this paper contributes to the related literature by showing the significant association between group-affiliation and CSR decisions.

The study aims to investigate methods for companies to contribute to not only social and national developments, but also on the promotion of individuals and companies by re-examining the various phenomena that define companies. The study examines the relationship between subordinate factors of social responsibility activities and job performances as well as the role of CEOs in showing authentic leadership and meaningfulness of work. A total of 312 valid questionnaires were obtained, and hypotheses were tested using regression analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, and 3-way interactions. The results suggest that corporate social responsibility activities not only enhanced the performance of the members, but also confirmed the importance of the authentic leadership of the CEO. Additionally, the role of the members in the company also showed to play a very significant role in a company’s developments. The results also show that the CEO and members need to make efforts to increase ethics as well as gain more competitiveness and improve their reputation by promoting their sense of calling and feeling of compassion in the workplace. In other words, the members of the high-ranking book and the members of the relatively low position will have different degrees of information transfer and evaluation of the company policy may be different.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to evaluate two multinational companies that seem to have reconciled the two mandates of CSR and profit maximization while becoming multibillion dollar companies and examine their organizational culture and practices and their management and leadership in order to determine the controlling factors, if any, that have elicited their success while renowned for their CSR policies. Research design, data, and methodology - This is a case study, an analytical approach, which focuses on exploring and analyzing the CSR policies of Starbucks and IKEA. Results – IKEA and Starbucks considered their position in the global business environment and their social responsibilities as crucial and did more than a cursory lip service to the issues. In fact, they both took the more difficult long-term approach and tried to resolve the root causes for the environmental and social issues in their supply chain. Ultimately though, it is the ethical leadership of the top management that sets the tone for the organizational culture and its CSR. Conclusion - IKEA and Starbucks are “living proof” that a company can be successful while treating its employees and the community of suppliers and associates with respect and dignity and while making this world a better place.

This research seeks to improve the understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its advantages in the shipping sector. Recently, an improved emphasis on CSR, which incorporates environmental and social concerns into economic considerations of firms, can be found in business management and marketing literature. This is mainly because of people’s increased awareness in regards to the negative consequences of corporate activities such as increased environmental pollution and gaps between the rich and the poor. According to the previous literature, it has been revealed that responsible actions by companies can generate positive outcomes in terms of financial and time aspects, but more importantly, intangible equity of the company, including improved corporate reputation, image as well as brand. As the regulation is intensifying in regards to environmental and social responsibility in the shipping sector, shipping companies are trying to engage in CSR to gain competitive advantages. While the reputation and image of shipping companies play essential roles for developing sustainable maritime transport, few studies have been conducted for how the CSR of shipping companies influence the shipping companies’ reputation and image relative to other industries. In this regard, this study aims to investigate the effect of the corporate social responsibility on corporate reputation and image of shipping companies on the basis of an exploratory study in the Republic of Korea. This research would be beneficial to both academics and practitioners for developing useful CSR strategies which could promote the public’s recognition of the shipping sector.